Earliest meeting: Thursday 6th May 1858Final meeting: Thursday 3rd May 1883
The Hampshire Hunt, one of the longest established Hunt Clubs in the country, had its own race meetings in the mid-1800s. The course was situated at Abbotstone Down near Alresford, with races first taking place on Thursday 6th May 1858. However, prior to this date the Hunt had made use of nearby Worthy Downs, and a trophy from those early days is shown below. Meetings continued to be well supported annually with the Uxbridge Cup the highlight each year, a race restricted to horses that had hunted with the Hampshire Hunt, the Vine or Hursley Hounds. On Thursday 19th April 1866 the card opened with a Hurdle race over 2 miles and 6 flights, and saw Mr L Lywood’s Tally Ho beat Miss Arthur and Brown Stout. The Farmers Plate was won by Lawrence for Mr Judd, the Garrison Stakes by Marble Hill for the Earl of Uxbridge, and the feature race by Tally Ho. Racing continued, although there appears to have been a break in 1870, but meetings resumed on Friday 28th April 1871. The final meeting took place on Thursday 3rd May 1883, although point to point races continued well after this date.

The trophy shown opposite was of Silver Gilt and stood 17 inches high and 16 inches wide. It was awarded for a race organised by the Hampshire Hunt on Wednesday 23rd April 1823 when run at Worthy Downs,Winchester. There was a meeting of the Hampshire Hunt Committee in the morning at the White Hart Inn, Winchester before going off to the races which started at 1pm the race being won by a brown horse Dominichino owned by Mr Thompson, beating Shuttlecock, owned by Mr Villebois, Olivia, owned by the Honourable W Sage, and Contract owned by Captain Shirreff.

The meeting was held at Abbotsholme Down and the final meeting took place on Thursday 3rd May 1883.

Course today

On Abbotstone Down, near Alresford

If you have photos, postcards, racecards. badges, newspaper cuttings or book references about the old course, or can provide a photo of how the ground on which the old racecourse stood looks today, then email johnwslusar@gmail.com

Much of the information about this course has been found using internet research and is in the public domain. However, useful research sources have been:-

London Illustrated News

Racing Illustrated 1895-1899

The Sporting & Dramatic Illustrated

Northern Turf History Volumes 1-4 by J.Fairfax-Blakeborough

The Sporting Magazine

A Long Time Gone by Chris Pitt first published in 1996 ISBN 0 900599 89 8

Racing Calendars which were first published in 1727

ISBN 978-0-9957632-0-3

652 pages

774 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-1-0

352 pages

400 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-2-7

180 pages

140 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-3-4

264 pages

235 former courses

Copies of the above books are only available by emailing johnwslusar@gmail.com stating your requirements, method of payment (cheque payable to W.Slusar) or Bank transfer, and the address where the book(s) should be sent.